192, Marcq en Baroeul, France, Saint Paul, come see the horrors

-

Marcq en Baroeul, France, Saint Paul, come see the horrors


I am a sucker for modern churches but I find this is a particularly fine specimen, with an elegant shape, all built in brick, and including highly original Stations of the Cross, lovely stained glass windows and a series of bas-reliefs on horrors of the world (Intolerance, War etc… you know who you are). Ths stained glass, finished in 1968, includes an impressive Annunciation.


The church was opened in 1964 - Marcq en Baroeil is close to Lille in the North of France - we were visiting friends here.


The internet tells me it is in Cistercian Flemish style.



















































Popular posts from this blog

161 Paris : The Church of Saint Louis en l’Ile: twirly pulpit and relics of King Louis

-
Image
The church of “St Louis on the Island” is , well, on the island – one of the two islands in the River Seine, in the centre of Paris, just across the road from the amazing Berthillon ice cream parlour. It was mostly built in the 17 th century for Saint Louis, the only saint to have also had a day job as King of France (in the 13 th century). When he was King he banned trial by ordeal, which is cool, and fought on the seventh crusade, which was less so. Inside there is a twirly pulpit, relics of Saint Louis, and a very fine painting by Jacques Stella of Jesus getting baptized. There are also wooden statues of a series of saints, a beautiful alms box, and a plaque presented by the citizens of the town of Saint Louis over in Missouri, USA. One of the stained glass pieces shows Jesus rising from the dead, waving his flag. They do a mass in English once a week .
Read more »

150 Paris 11th arrondissement : Saint Ambroise – dinky stations of the cross

-
Image
  Built in honour of Saint Ambrose of Milan, fourth century bishop and one of the four great Latin church fathers, who put innovative chanting into churches, and who wrote some hymns which are still regularly used today. The church was consecrated in 1910 (a previous church on the site had been opened in 1818). Its impressive set   of towers is now easier to appreciate since they opened the garden opposite. The entrance porch includes allegorical figures representing theology and eloquence. The church contains dinky stations of the cross, mosaics of a series of saints, and a fine altar canopy, The noticeboard explains how you can learn sewing on Thursday nights.
Read more »

177 Barcelona, Sagrada Familia: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the wee donkey

-
Image
  Obviously, breathtaking. I ran out of superlatives before I even got inside. Worth coming a very long way to see ( which I myself didn’t: I had a conference round the corner). And it will soon be finished, with the help of the ticket income from around 5 million visitors a year. It will have eighteen towers: twelve for the apostles, four for the evangelists, one for Mother Mary, and one for the little biddy baby, born, born, born in Bethlehem. The land to build the basilica was bought in 1881 (the land was cheap then cos not much city), but the church was not actually consecrated until 2010, by Pope Benedict.  Gaudi of course was chief architect, until he died in 1926 in a tram accident. Since then other architects have tried to follow his inspiration. I was interested in the fact that the large number of columns in the centre of the structure means that the outside walls are not carrying as much weight and this allows them to have those huge stained glass expanses. Stunning...
Read more »